Divisum Imperium
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Lat. A divided empire or jurisdiction; a jurisdiction shared between two tribunals, or exercised by them alternately.* This classic phrase is frequently applied in the books to the jurisdiction alternately exercised by the courts of common law and admiralty between high and low water mark, where the sea ebbs and flows; the one having jurisdiction upon the water when it is full sea, and the other upon the land when it is an ebb.
Finch, Law, 78. 6 Co. 107. 1 Bl. C<ym. 110. Molloy de Jur. Mar. 231. 1 Kent's C<ym, 366.
It is applied also to the jurisdiction exercised by courts of common law and of equity over the same subject.
4 Stepk. Com. 9.